The Yiddish Policemen's Union

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007) is a literary detective novel by American author Michael Chabon. It is set in an alternate history where the United States government created the District of Sitka in Alaska as a temporary refugee settlement for European Jews after the State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. In the novel’s present timeline, Detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of his neighbor, Emanuel Lasker, against the backdrop of Sitka’s imminent Reversion to United States sovereignty. As Landsman goes deeper into the case, he uncovers a larger conspiracy connected to the Reversion, forcing him to reckon with his Jewish identity. Chabon uses the novel to explore The Value of Uncertainty, The Use of Sacred Tradition to Justify Violence, and Reconciling Fate and Free Will. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union received the Nebula and Hugo Awards for Best Novel, as well as the Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

This study guide refers to the hardcover first edition of the novel, published by HarperCollins in 2007.

Content Warning: The source material and study guide feature depictions of cursing, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, death, racism, antigay bias, gender discrimination, sexual violence, sexual content, mental illness, child death, religious discrimination, antisemitism, suicidal ideation, death by suicide, and pregnancy termination.

Plot Summary

Building on an alternate history, the novel is set in the District of Sitka in Alaska, a temporary refugee settlement for European Jews who fled Nazi Germany and the destruction of the State of Israel in 1948. The novel’s present action takes place in 2007 and unfolds on the eve of Reversion, when Sitka will be restored to U.S. sovereignty, forcing the citizens of Sitka to seek new homes elsewhere.

Detective Meyer Landsman, the novel’s protagonist, is a resident of the decaying Hotel Zamenhof. He learns that his neighbor in Room 208, a man named Emanuel Lasker, has been killed. Landsman takes on the Lasker case after his initial examination of the crime scene reveals that Lasker was shot. However, the investigation is formally suspended by Landsman’s ex-wife and commanding officer, Bina Gelbfish, as part of a departmental policy to resolve all open cases before Reversion takes effect. Landsman enlists his Jewish Tlingit partner and cousin, Berko Shemets, to help him investigate the case anyway, driven by his fixation with Lasker’s love of chess, which reminds Landsman of his father.

At a local chess club, Landsman and Berko learn that Lasker’s name evokes nervousness among Sitka’s criminal sects. With help from a border maven named Itzik Zimbalist, they connect Lasker to Sitka’s biggest criminal organization, the Verbovers, and learn that Lasker’s real name was Mendel Shpilman. He was the only son of Verbover kingpin Heskel Shpilman. Furthermore, Mendel was widely rumored to have been the Tzaddik Ha-Dor, a messianic figure of Jewish tradition, after he demonstrated miraculous powers among the Verbover community.

Zimbalist takes the detectives to meet with Heskel and his son-in-law and heir apparent, Rabbi Baronshteyn. Heskel reveals that he and Mendel have been estranged for over 20 years and warns the detectives not to push the investigation any further. Landsman suspects that Heskel and Baronshteyn may be involved in Mendel’s murder. Bina soon discovers that Landsman is disobeying her orders and pursuing the case. She cautions that she will have to disavow him if he gets into trouble. While following a lead on another case, Landsman sustains minor injuries in a gunfight. Bina uses this to suspend Landsman from active service to prevent him from further punitive action.

Landsman speaks to Mendel’s mother, Batsheva Shpilman, to ask about the family’s estrangement from Mendel. She reveals that 20 years earlier, Mendel chose to forego his arranged marriage, coming out to Batsheva as gay. Although they have not seen each other since Mendel’s wedding day, Batsheva has quietly extended financial support to him through the years. Landsman connects details from his interview with Batsheva to the same airfield his pilot sister, Naomi, was flying to when she died in a plane crash earlier that year. Retracing Naomi’s flight plan to Peril Strait, Alaska, Landsman discovers Beth Tikkun Retreat Center, a paramilitary training facility disguised as an addiction recovery facility. When he goes there to investigate, Baronshteyn appears and captures him, tying the facility to the Verbovers. Landsman soon escapes and is rescued by a Tlingit detective named Wilfred Dick. Joined by Berko, the detectives conclude that the Peril Strait Jews are planning a larger conspiracy with the United States government. Dick shows Landsman and Berko a Jewish-owned pasture where they spot a red heifer, the Jewish traditional sacrifice that heralds the coming of the Tzaddik Ha-Dor.

Landsman and Berko consult Berko’s estranged father, Hertz Shemets, who was publicly disgraced several years earlier after his work as a counterintelligence operative for the FBI was exposed in the newspaper. Hertz suspects that the conspiracy is being led by Alter Litvak, a former operative who used to perform demolition jobs for Hertz. He theorizes that Litvak is plotting to spark a war in Jerusalem and restore the State of Israel. Hertz’s admissions cause Berko to realize that Hertz and Litvak provoked the riot in Sitka that killed Berko’s mother years before, fueling his resentment toward Hertz. After Berko storms out in anger, Hertz attempts suicide out of remorse. Berko is forced to accompany Hertz to Sitka General Hospital.

Landsman brings his findings to Bina, who feels compelled to help him after the United States government forces her to turn over jurisdiction of the case to cover up their involvement. They find and confront Litvak, who admits that he was involved in a plot to prepare Mendel to play the symbolic role of the Tzaddik Ha-Dor as the Verbovers worked to take over Jerusalem. Though Litvak did not believe in Jewish tradition, he was shocked to discover that Mendel may have had supernatural gifts after all. He attacked Mendel, which scared Mendel away from Beth Tikkun. Mendel then asked Naomi to fly him back to Sitka, after which the enforcers sent to recover him killed Naomi.

While Landsman and Bina are confronting Litvak, a news report announces an attack on the Muslim Qubbat As-Sakhrah shrine in Jerusalem, which many Sitka Jews celebrate as the first step toward the restoration of Israel. Litvak escapes, following which Landsman and Bina are apprehended by an American FBI agent named Cashdollar, who is revealed to have been Litvak’s American liaison in the Beth Tikkun operation. Cashdollar threatens Landsman and Bina into keeping their silence, admitting his office’s role in Naomi’s death.

Though their encounter with Cashdollar demoralizes them, Landsman and Bina are assured of residency after Reversion takes effect if they maintain their silence about their discoveries. Landsman is reinstated to active duty, which enables him to find out what happened to Litvak. Landsman learns that Litvak was smuggled out of the confrontation by Zimbalist, who refuses to admit anything about Litvak’s plot until the detectives solve Mendel’s murder. Frustrated and disillusioned, Landsman and Bina resume a sexual relationship. Landsman soon realizes that the configuration of Mendel’s chessboard revealed a vital clue to the identity of his killer, which corresponded to a chessboard Landsman saw during his visit to Hertz Shemets.

Landsman and Bina confront Hertz at Berko’s apartment, accusing him of Mendel’s murder. Hertz confesses that he killed Mendel at Mendel’s request. He says Mendel saw no other way out of his involvement in Litvak’s conspiracy. Hertz obliged Mendel’s request out of spite for Litvak, though it disappointed him that Litvak carried out his plan anyway in the absence of Mendel. Following Hertz’s arrest, Landsman and Bina reckon with their choice to abide by Cashdollar’s deal. Landsman also confesses his guilt about their past choice to terminate Bina’s pregnancy, which eventually led to their divorce. Bina assures Landsman that they made the best decisions they could, given the limited knowledge they had. Her assurance emboldens Landsman to call a journalist with the intention of exposing Litvak’s conspiracy.